The Human Factor in Chess

GM Karsten Mueller shouldn’t need a presentation, he is likely the GM who has written more books about the endgame in chess history! He publishes regularly on Chessbase Magazine a column on chess endgames which is simply fantastic, and big like a book, since he presents something like 50 different endgames every 2 months. I

Is chess promoting racism? – a collector’s view

In the last couple of months, racism all over the world has rightfully received an increased attention. We are still far away from a society in which people have equal chances irrespective of their gender, age, physical condition or skin colour. It did not take long – and was to be expected – that the

The French Defence Move by Move

The French Defense Damian Lemos Everyman Chess 2021

Intro: I’m going to review 3 new chess books on the French defense. The goal is to inform the reader of the content of such books, so they can decide how to spend their hard earned money, and at the same time to make it a training-teaching moment for the reader and myself. The different

Philippine Staunton Chess Sets

Recently, I had a discussion with Davide Nastasio regarding Philippine Staunton chess sets. He bought a reproduction of such a set produced by the Indian manufacturer Chessbazaar. I was aware that Chessbazaar was selling sets in this pattern. But I have to admit that I never really cared for more detail. When Davide mentioned the

Chess collecting – the story continues

In my first article I described that chess does not only consist of openings, tactics and tournaments, but that the chess enthusiast can and should also show an interest in the history of the game and the playing material. This recent article shows the close links between the two. Today I want to tie in

The 14th Czechoslovak Championship

When chess games and the history of a chess set come all together – By Holger Langer and Davide Nastasio This is a rare Czech tournament chess set similar to the ones used in the 14th Czechoslovak Championship which was held at Poděbrady from July 5-26, 1936. The tournament was organized as an international event,

Fat Fritz 2 versus Magnus Carlsen!

Who is the best chess player of all time? Often such question generates endless debates in internet chess forum and involves the names of: Fischer, Kasparov, Carlsen and Karpov… Strangely none of them, also if they are truly great players, would be able to withstand a freeware like Stockfish set at few seconds per move,